Dog Gone It!

April 15, 2016

Sorry there are no pictures of the baptism, the person that took all the pictures hasn't gotten back to us yet with them...

Week

•   Baptism 

•   The Gift of the Holy Ghost

•   The Adventures of Charismatic Kevin!

•   Hit a dog on a backroad

•   Reconnection With a lost family

•   Trust in many other people

So let's start with one of the greatest things that can happen for anyone. Kevin B.  was baptized!! And Dorthy W.  came an saw it.  She loved it and wants to be baptized herself (she said soon so we are thinking by June a the very latest). As Kevin was being lifted up out of the water he slipped and fell so his torso was grabbed and he was lifted out. It was one of those moments that seem to always happen when something of this magnitude happens. He was so happy both before and he was beaming afterwards. 

The next day (Sunday) when Kevin received the Gift of the Holy Ghost, He was super happy and said that he felt the greatest peace he had ever felt in his life. 

He needed a ride from church to his house so we gave him a ride and beforehand he was wondering if he could come out with us to teach people, of course we said yes and were super excited to have him help teach.

We went down to Gasburg to visit his family (grandma) because he wanted her to read the Book of Mormon and pray and ask for herself if it was true. Her grandma had one of the most unanswered questions for a religious individual. "Why are there so many churches if there is one God, one Savior, and should be one Gospel?" And Kevin explained her answer through his testimony of coming to know the Book of Mormon was true and asking God for Himself. As Kevin said "You will know with even greater knowledge, just as I came to know that This is the answer to that question granny". He then came with us to Daphne B.'s house and testified to her of the importance of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. She had seen that it was important to him and was interested in asking for herself to find that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and testifies, just as the Bible that Jesus is the Christ. Our final stop by was Dorthy W. that fine Sunday and I think we might have woken her up from a nap (around 5:15 in the evening) but as soon as she saw Kevin her eyes got really wide and she said "come in come in I have some questions for this young man about the Gift of the Holy Ghost. So Kevin helped answer them and talked about the bliss that he felt, like he never wanted to do something wrong again in his life.

Yes, even with all these amazing things that happen, we can still have unexpected accidental sad stories. I hit a dog on the way to church Sunday morning. We were able to get some help for it and as far as we know there were no broken bones, no  ajor hemorrhages and the only main injury we saw (to our amazement) was that she had a bloody paw and was in shock from a vehicle hitting her at 40miles an hour on a country backroad. I will be completely honest, my companion had more sympathy for the dog than I, however it did cross my mind what would happen if someone hit my dog, what would I want them to do? Truth of the matter is their dog is doing well and that's a relief.

We were able to reconnect a family I haven't talked to in about 7 weeks. Apparently the mom of the family is really stressed out with raising solo her five boys and when we talked with her at first she looked at us like she wanted to kill us, but as we asked how her kids were doing, she said "one sec, I'll be right out" and then came out and pretty much told us all the shenanigans going on since we last talked with her and she wanted a blessing to help with her trials. That was completely a miracle how that happened and I will explain why.

About 2 weeks prior ,as I was praying, that family came to my mind and when that happens I usually say to myself "hey God, can we visit them today?" And ya know what my answer was? It was No. A Very firm and distinctive No. What came right after was "write down on a sticky note to visit them on the week on the 11th through the 17th and I will prepare the mother for you to hear My word". So we did, we waited for 2 weeks and on that Friday, we went and saw her. Then this all happened... I don't know if that has ever happened before, but the story doesn't end there. As we were about to leave, we felt a distinct impression there was someone else we needed to talk to and as Elder Shupe confirmed that impression he was looking and saw a lady by her car and thought "maybe she is the one we need to talk to?" And right as he said that, the confirmation to him was when she dropped her stuff out of her car and we had the impression to help. Talked to her and it turns out she is not her Mother that wants her and her 3 children brought into church again because they had moved from North Carolina and needed a home.

Throughout this entire transfer I have had struggles with the issue of trusting God, but once I said to myself "I trust you" and followed what was given, I have seen the miracles of God be brought to pass.

Elder Day